Pax Iulia or Colonia Civitas Pacensis was a city in the Roman province of Lusitania, today Beja, Portugal. Already inhabited in Celtic times around 400 BC, there are indications of a Carthaginian presence, and the city is mentioned by Polybius and Claudius Ptolemy in the second century BC. It was renamed Pax Iulia, "peace of the gens Julia", by Julius Caesar in 48 BC after peace was made with the Lusitani. The town became a capital of a conventus iuridicus, Pacensis, in the province of Lusitania, as it was situated at a strategic road junction, with connection to Myrtilis Iulia, a harbor city in the Guadiana river.
Sometime between 31 and 27 BC, during the reign of the emperor Augustus, the city was granted the municipium following the Battle of Actium. The colonists were ascribed to the gens Galeria.[1] A new designation, "Pax Augusta" (peace of Augustus), appears at this time, as mentioned by Strabo,[2]
Archeology has uncovered the remains of a large Roman temple (30 x 19.4 metres) from the first century AD, several inscriptions, a Roman arch, fortifications and an aqueduct.[3][4]
